This large species, with adults averaging 136 kg (300 lbs) in weight, is sought after worldwide for its meat. This has resulted in an Endangered status for this species. Their name comes from the greenish colour of the body fat which has been used for centuries to make turtle soup.

The olive brown shell is often patterned with darker streaks. Juveniles eat both plant and animal matter, but older animals are unique amongst sea turtles in being strict herbivores, feeding almost exclusively on sea grasses and algae.

The green turtle is the dominant sea turtle species on the Bermuda platform. Immature animals can be found feeding on lush sea grass pastures among beautiful coral reefs.

The hawksbill turtle has a highly prized ornate shell and a birdlike beak for which it gets its name. It is one of the smaller sea turtle species. Hawksbills feed almost exclusively on sponges that are loaded with glasslike spicules. Immature animals are not uncommon amongst the coral reefs surrounding Bermuda. They can grow to nearly 90 kgs (200 lbs) as adults, but those found in Bermuda average 10 kgs (22 lbs).

These animals are exploited in other parts of the world for their shell, meat and eggs and are Critically Endangered. Hawksbill turtles in Bermuda are occasionally captured during project field trips but more often, they are encountered by cooperating recreational divers licenced to take lobsters.

This species has a large, broad head and powerful jaws, which it uses to dine on shellfish. They eat crabs, clams, mussels, shrimp, sea urchins, squid, jellyfish and are even capable of crushing very thick-shelled conchs. This species has a reddish-brown shell and grows to 159 kgs (350 lbs) or more.

Hatchling loggerheads spend their first months well camouflaged in floating rafts of sargassum weed. During the winter months, juvenile loggerheads are found stranded on our shores by storms. They are typically found clinging to a small clump of associated sargassum weed.

In 1990, a nest was discovered on a beach at the eastern end of Bermuda. This turned out to be the first record of a loggerhead nesting in Bermuda and the first sign of nesting activity by any species locally since the early 1930s. The loggerhead is threatened by incidental capture in the nets of commercial fisherman, long liners, and shrimp trawlers all over the world.

The leatherback is a turtle with a bizarre shell adapted to its pelagic, deep-diving lifestyle. This is the largest living reptile, growing to 909 kgs (2,000 lbs). Since most of its life is spent in the open ocean, the leatherback is a truly mysterious animal.

It gets its name from the thick, leathery skin that covers the shell rather than the typical hard scales of most turtles. The bony part of its shell is made up of thousands of small interlocking bones, like the pieces of a puzzle. Unlike the other sea turtle species, the leatherback roams the seas as far north as Alaska, Nova Scotia and even Iceland, and it is capable of deep dives in excess of 1,000 meters (3,280 feet).

A perfect diving machine, this species is able to maintain its body temperature as much as 10 degrees above that of surrounding waters; this is presumably an adaptation for survival in cold seas.

Leatherbacks feed almost exclusively on jellyfish, and in recent years, an increasing number of plastic bags. Considering jellyfish are ninety-seven percent water, one has to wonder how such an enormous, ocean-going reptile subsists on such a diet. No doubt the quantity of jellyfish consumed is vast. Leatherbacks are only occasionally seen offshore around Bermuda, presumably as they pass by our oceanic island on one of their long-distance journeys.

This rare species is an occasional waif in Bermuda waters. It is a Critically Endangered species that goes through much of its life cycle within the Gulf of Mexico and along the eastern seaboard of the United States. However, some immatures venture out into the Atlantic, and at least two have found their way into Bermuda waters.